The Scent of Gold

THE SCENT OF GOLD

TEXT: LIV HAMBRETT

PHOTOS: THEA NEUBAUER

When I was fifteen, YVES SAINT LAURENT released a fruity flirt of a fragrance called BABYDOLL. It came in a pink glass bottle shaped like a child’s spinning top, with a gold lid and the words »Babydoll« and »YSL«, both in gold, overlaying one another. IT WAS A DREAM. I NEEDED IT.

»WHAT DO I WEAR IN BED? WHY, CHANEL NO.5, OF COURSE.«

- MARYLIN MONROE

CHANEL »No. 5«

Pink and gold, notes of PEACH and FREESIA, a Lolita-esque clash of innocence and sensuality that was, now that I look back, a rather inappropriate fragrance to market to teenaged girls. When I finally got it for my 16th birthday, it was as if I had become the woman I was always destined to be: drenched in the scent of GRENADINE and CINNAMON, a hint of wild rose clinging to my otherwise entirely unfashionable teen self. The bottle sat on my dresser, the light refracting through the glass, the gold lid glinting whenever I passed it by.

My relationship with fragrance began well before I pined for the pink and gold of YSL’S BABYDOLL, but Babydoll marked my entry into the adult world of perfume. From there, I collected enormous amounts of fragrance, assisted by working in a fragrance shop through university, and became terribly au fait with tossing about such terms as »base notes« and »warm wood«. My collection ranged from ELIZABETH ARDEN’S super clean GREEN TEA to the utterly decadent FENDI PALAZZO, a big white floral with the spice of pink pepper and warmth of cedar, with all the gold-laced GUERLAIN bottles in between. My bathroom cupboards became a tribute to glass and gold.

YVES SAINT LAURENT »Babydoll«

ELIZABETH ARDEN »Green Tea«

To talk about fragrance is to enter a world where, however momentarily, only sense exists. Fragrance has long been a dab of something exclusive and extra –it’s expensive and sensuous and entirely unnecessary. And as much as it has gone from something preserved for the upper echelons to an everyday thing many of us cannot do without, there remains an element of luxury to fragrance, which is perhaps why, for much of its life, perfume has been unable to escape gold. Solid perfume in little gold cases; ancient and modern bottles decorated with GOLD; gold appearing in the fragrance’s name as the ultimate indication of just what level of luxury we are dealing with here – the gold level; wherever fragrance goes, GOLD IS NEVER FAR BEHIND.

Glancing back at the past century or so of perfume, one cannot overlook, forgive me, the gold standard, CHANEL #5. Famous more for the various faces of it and one particular woman who claimed to wear it, and only it, to bed, #5 is an inescapable presence. The bottle then, unsurprisingly features two slim rings of gold at the neck, and lets the colour of the fragrance do the talking; a rich, deep, fabulously oldfashioned gold.

GUERLAIN »Shalimar«

But let’s not dwell on Marilyn’s pyjamas. The 20th century brought with it a veritable flood of perfumes sparkling in their golden vessels. GUERLAIN’S SHALIMAR followed a few years after #5, and its bottle featured an adorable gold medallion holding the black ribbon in place. The word itself, the whispery SHALIMAR was written on the bottle in gold, and the perfume house scrawled in gold on the lid. Things got heavy in the latter half of last century, with the 70s and 80s dropping big, spicy perfume bombs housed in big, flashy bottles. YSL hit us with OPIUM, a controversial concoction of mandarin and myrrh that featured a large golden disc on its otherwise very 70’s brown bottle. CHRISTIAN DIOR brought out POISON, a purple bottle with glass and gold lid, and the name winking in gold. While the 90s took a spin with minimalism, and silvers, blues and the frosted glass of CK ONE became du jour, at the end of the decade CHRISTIAN DIOR threw the delicate, almost unbearably feminine floral J’ADORE into the fray. J’ADORE, a soft fusion of jasmine, citrus, rose and vanilla, comes in a tear-drop bottle, its long neck ringed in gold.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR »White Diamond«

The 2000s brought with it the celebrity fragrance with every self-respecting remotely famous person putting their name to a scent. (Although, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention ELIZABETH TAYLOR was well ahead of the trend, releasing WHITE DIAMONDS in 1991. The fragrance comes in a bottle encrusted with faux versions of its namesake, but with a huge, gold lid.) BRITNEY SPEARS, CHRISTINA AGUILERA, PARIS HILTON and JENNIFER LOPEZ bolted out of the gate early and were soon joined by BEYONCÉ and MARIAH CAREY. Sean Combs (P DIDDY) and DAVID BECKHAM are potentially the only male celebrities worth mentioning on a list that also includes BRUCE WILLIS, CRISTIANO RONALDO and DONALD TRUMP.

LADY GAGA »Fame«

With BRITNEY’S CURIOUS and FANTASY being old enough to have been given several other versions (think MIDNIGHT FANTASY and FANTASY INTIMATE) KATY PERRY, LADY GAGA and RIHANNA followed with their offerings, and ARIANA GRANDE, SELENA GOMEZ and TAYLOR SWIFT took up the mantle for the younger crop. GAGA and Rihanna’s bottles were black and gold, and Taylor’s midnight blue orb was covered in gold, but there was one celebrity bottle that blew the rest out of the water. KIM KARDASHIAN backed up from her first, rather boring release (think pink and purple and an oversized KK) with a fragrance bottle made from an actual mould of her body. The box opens and there is a sandy, golden KIM KARDASHIAN torso full of peach, jasmine and ylang ylang. The fragrance is, imaginatively, called BODY. From #5’s delicate understated rings, to Kim’s muted gold bustwaist-hip ratio, few fragrances have gone by without at least a sprinkle of precious metal; and long may this decadent, completely over the top relationship prosper.

RIHANNA »Crush«

KIM KARDASHIAN »Honey«

DIOR »Poison«

DAVID BECKHAM »Classic«